After 40: Bruins 3-Capitals 1

(Bruins Daily/Sharon Bradley) Anton Khudobin made some timely stops in the second period helping the Boston Bruins maintain a two-goal lead over the Washington Capitals after 40 minutes.

Even with an own goal by David Krejci 1:24 into the second period, the Boston Bruins are looking good.

Despite pulling the Washington Capitals within one, Krejci made up for the miscue with his second point of the night assisting on Andrew Ference’s first of the season at 8:02 of the second. Krejci and fellow linemates Milan Lucic and Nathan Horton each have multiple point nights as the Black and Gold take a 3-1 lead to the dressing room after 40 minutes.

Here are my three observations from the middle 20.

1. It was only a matter of time, but after the officiating stepped in to stop any extra curricular activity, the Bruins and Caps finally dropped the gloves – twice. First, Mike Ribeiro and Brad Marchand out of all people decided to duke it out, which didn’t turn out to be much of a slugfest. Then Horton, who’s playing one of his better games of the season, dropped Matt Hendricks in a solid bout. Will there be more in the third? Only time will tell…

2. Nice to see Ference tally a goal for the first time this season. For a guy who is clearly struggling, any type of confidence boost is certainly welcomed. Captain Planet is playing one of his better games of the season in his own end clearing pucks out of danger and limiting his turnovers. Perhaps this is the sight of better things to come for Ference, who is on the last year of his contract.

3. After leaving the media in doubt on who would be the starting goaltender in his pregame press conference, it looks like Claude Julien made the right decision going with Anton Khudobin this afternoon. The Bruins’ backup has been very solid with 20 saves through two periods and is moving between the posts nicely. His highlight reel save on Nicklas Backstrom during Washington’s second period was very timely keeping Boston ahead 2-1 nearly midway through the second period.